Tag: Chocolate

Despite the name this gooey, fudgey and supremely chocolatey slice of bliss is actually a cake rather than a pie, but as it’s an original creation by Ree Drummond I’ll give her a pass. This time.

Bartlesville Cream Pie is a layer of smooth salted caramel pudding sandwiched between two layers of rich chocolate cake and smothered in a decadent cream ganache.

If you have a chocoholic in your life, this will definitely get you in their good books!

Making your own caramel for the pudding might seem daunting but it just needs a little care and attention to make sure it doesn’t burn. If you haven’t had American-style pudding before you’re in for a treat, especially if you’re a salted caramel fan.

Butter a 20cm cake pan, line it with greaseproof paper, then butter it again and dust it with cocoa powder (this avoids white patches on your dark cake)

Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.

Melt the butter on a medium heat, then stir in the cocoa until smooth.

Add the water, stir until mixed and then let boil for 30 seconds before removing from the heat,

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture a little at a time until smooth.

Mix the buttermilk, bicarb, vanilla and egg. Stir into the chocolate mixture.

Pour into the cake pan and bake until a skewer comes out clean, approximately 25–35 minutes depending on the oven.

Rest the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before removing it, then leave it to cool completely.

Pudding

Preferably in a light-coloured pan, melt half the sugar on a medium heat, stirring from time to time.

When the sugar is melted and a nice golden colour, remove from the heat — pay attention here as it will burn easily.

Whisk the cornstarch, salt and remaining sugar into 2⁄3 of the milk, then slowly mix into the hot sugar.

Put the pot back on a medium heat and stir continuously until smooth.

Whisk the egg yolks and remaining milk together, then stir into the pot.

Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring continuously to avoid lumps.

Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and butter.

Strain the mixture into a bowl, then press a piece of cling film onto the surface of the pudding — this avoids a skin forming as it cools.

Leave to cool for a while, then put in the fridge.

Putting it all together

Carefully cut the cake into two layers. This is best done a little at a time from every angle, eventually meeting in the middle. It doesn’t matter if your lines are perfectly straight but you’ll want the layers as even as possible.

Spread the pudding over the bottom layer of cake, then carefully put the other layer of cake on top.

Heat (but don’t boil) the cream over a medium heat, then add the chocolate and stir until smooth before adding the vanilla.

When the ganache is ready, pour it as evenly as possible over the cake and spread so it drips down the sides and coats the whole pie.

Refrigerate until set, preferably overnight for best results but I know that’s easier said than done 🙂

Notes

Buttermilk can be hard to find unless you have a big supermarket near you, but really what we want here is just some slightly acidic dairy to activate the bicarb, so a substitute will work fine — I used 3⁄4 tsp malt vinegar and made up to the 1⁄4 cup of milk.

For Americans, that means s’mores. These little pieces of magic combine three simple ingredients — biscuit, marshmallow and chocolate — and turn them into gooey, sticky, delectable treats that’ll have you coming back time and again for “some more” — hence the name!

These cookie bar bites are like an extra-gooey blondie and are adapted from a recipe on Sally’s Baking Addiction, one of my absolute favourite baking sites. They’re simple to make and guaranteed to get a reaction — take them to the next outdoor event you go to and see your friends’ faces light up as they discover the joy of s’mores!

S’mores are better-known in the US than the UK, but I’m on a mission to educate my friends one cookie, brownie or slice of pie at a time.

Biscuit, chocolate and marshmallow — what’s not to like?

This pie came about because I had a couple of jars worth of Fluff in the cupboard that I wanted to use up, so I paired it with a butter chocolate ganache and a buttery biscuit base for a simple but effective treat.

I’ve used a base recipe from the awesome Sally’s Baking Addiction here but if you have a preferred biscuit base recipe any will do — it’s the flavour that’s important.

Add half the flour mixture, then the milk, then the rest of the flour mixture, making sure it’s well mixed each time.

Add the chocolate mint crunch and mix through evenly.

Chill the dough for at least 15 minutes — you can make the dough up to a couple of days ahead if you want.

Preheat the oven to 160°c (140°c fan).

Portion the dough out onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper.

Bake the cookies. How long you leave them in depends on your oven and how you like your cookies. I like my cookies soft, which took 10 minutes in my fan oven. If you’re not sure, do test runs with a few cookies at a time until you find the right balance. The cookies will firm up as they cool, so bear this in mind when deciding if they’re done.

Crush the Oreos into crumbs. It’s easiest to use a food processor but you can do it the old-school way too.

Melt half the butter and combine with the Oreo crumbs.

Press the Oreo mixture into a 25cm pie dish and put in the freezer for 10 minutes to set.

Melt the rest of the butter and stir in the sugar. Stir continuously until the mixture starts to bubble.

Cook for another minute then take off the heat.

Slowly combine 1⁄4 cup (60ml) cream and mix until smooth.

Cool caramel for 15 minutes, then pour into the pie crust. Put in freezer for 30–45 minutes until the caramel is set.

Bring the remaining cream to a simmer over a medium heat.

Pour cream over chocolate in a mixing bowl and leave for 5 minutes, then stir until smooth.

Pour ganache over caramel and refrigerate or freeze until set (depending on how long you think you can wait!).

Before serving, sprinkle over some salt — personally I don’t like too much salt in my salted caramel stuff but it’s up to you. I also added a decoration of vanilla buttercream for the colour contrast and because I can’t get enough vanilla 🙂